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The Holocaust in occupied Poland

1939–1945 · 19 articles · about 185 min of reading

Occupied Poland became the main site of the murder of Europe’s Jews. The Germans marked them and shut them in ghettos, and from 1942 killed them in death camps including Chełmno, Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The series follows the stages: the ghettos, the decisions at Wannsee, the great deportation from Warsaw, the first reports sent to the world, and armed resistance in the ghettos and camps.

1939

  1. 0123 November 1939Event6 minStar of David armbandsThe start of the road from marking through isolation to murder: the armband made every Jew recognisable on the street.On 23 November 1939 Hans Frank ordered Jews in the General Government aged 10 and over to wear a white armband with a blue Star of David from 1 December.

1940

  1. 022 October 1940EventKey moment9 minThe creation of the Warsaw GhettoAfter marking came isolation: in Warsaw, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, Jews were walled into a closed district.On 2 October 1940 Governor Ludwig Fischer ordered a “Jewish district” to be set up in Warsaw. By mid-November some 250,000 people had been forced to move.

1941

  1. 031 October 1941Event10 minThe camp at MajdanekA prisoner-of-war camp near Lublin became a link in Operation Reinhard and the first witness to the crime that the world saw after the Red Army arrived.From 1 October 1941 the SS was to build a camp near Lublin for 50,000 Soviet prisoners of war. So began Majdanek, where nearly 80,000 people died.

1942

  1. 0415 January 1942Event9 minDeportations from Łódź to ChełmnoFrom ghetto to murder: people were taken from Łódź to Chełmno, the first German extermination camp, where Jews of the Warthegau had been killed since December 1941.In mid-January 1942 the Germans began deporting Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to the Chełmno death camp. By the end of January some 10,000 had been murdered.
  2. 0520 January 1942EventKey moment11 minThe Wannsee ConferenceThe killing had been going on for months, and at Wannsee Heydrich brought together officials of the SS, the party and the ministries to secure their cooperation across Europe.On 20 January 1942 Heydrich gathered fifteen SS, Party and ministry officials by the Wannsee to co-ordinate the murder of Europe's Jews, already under way.
  3. 061 June 1942Event9 minThe Bund ReportNews of the Holocaust reaches London: the figures were known by June 1942, but for many months they were treated as exaggerated.In late May or early June 1942 the Bund Report reached London, reporting 700,000 Jews murdered in Poland and gassing at Chełmno. The West did not believe it.
  4. 0722 July 1942Event9 minThe Treblinka extermination campBuilt to take in the Jews of Europe’s largest ghetto, it became the largest Operation Reinhard camp, with 800,000–900,000 victims.On 22 July 1942 the first transport left Warsaw for Treblinka II. The next day the camp began operating; the Germans murdered some 800,000–900,000 Jews there.
  5. 0822 July 1942EventKey moment13 minThe Great Deportation in the Warsaw GhettoThe walled district became a point of deportation: in under two months the Germans sent at least 254,000 people to Treblinka.On 22 July 1942 the Germans began deporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka. By 21 September they had murdered at least 254,000 people there.
  6. 095 August 1942Event10 minThe deportation of Janusz Korczak's orphanageThe Great Deportation in a single fate: Korczak refused to hide and went to Treblinka with his children, and his ideas lived on in children’s rights.On 5 August 1942 the Germans deported Janusz Korczak, Stefania Wilczyńska, their staff and nearly 200 children from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka.
  7. 1017 December 1942EventKey moment9 minThe Allied declaration on the extermination of the JewsFor the first time the Allies jointly named the extermination of the Jews, thanks to Polish reports, but the distance from knowledge to action remained great.On 17 December 1942 Anthony Eden read to the Commons a declaration by 11 governments and the Free French condemning the murder of the Jews. MPs rose in silence.

1943

  1. 1118 January 1943EventKey moment11 minThe first armed resistance in the Warsaw GhettoA turning point after the Great Deportation: the ŻOB offered armed resistance for the first time, and in April few went to the Umschlagplatz of their own accord.On 18 January 1943 the Germans resumed deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto. ŻOB fighters first resisted with arms; after four days the action was halted.
  2. 1213 March 1943EventKey moment10 minThe liquidation of the Kraków GhettoAnother ghetto liquidated: in Kraków those able to work were driven to Płaszów, while the old, the sick and children were killed or sent to Auschwitz.On 13–14 March 1943 the Germans liquidated the ghetto in Kraków's Podgórze. Those fit to work were driven to Płaszów; some 2,000 were killed on the spot.
  3. 1319 April 1943EventKey moment10 minThe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising beginsThe climax of resistance: on the eve of Passover the fighters repelled the Germans entering the ghetto, and the uprising became a symbol of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.On 19 April 1943, the eve of Passover, ŻOB and ŻZW fighters drove back the Germans entering the Warsaw Ghetto. They soon returned under Jürgen Stroop.
  4. 1416 May 1943EventKey moment9 minThe end of the Warsaw Ghetto UprisingThe end of the fighting and of the ghetto: Stroop blew up the Great Synagogue, and his own report left the uprising exceptionally well documented.On 16 May 1943 Stroop blew up the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie and declared the Warsaw Ghetto at an end. His report listed 56,065 Jews “caught”.
  5. 1516 August 1943EventKey moment10 minThe Białystok Ghetto UprisingAfter Warsaw, the largest armed action by Jews in occupied Poland: the underground took the Warsaw ŻOB as its model, though it had no chance of success.On 16 August 1943 the Germans began liquidating the Białystok ghetto. Several hundred poorly armed fighters resisted; their leaders died in the ghetto.
  6. 1614 October 1943EventKey moment11 minThe Sobibór uprisingA revolt inside an extermination camp itself: prisoners killed SS men, and the breakout from Sobibór was the most successful escape from a German extermination camp.On 14 October 1943 prisoners of the Sobibór death camp killed a dozen or so SS men and guards. About 300 escaped to the forest; a few dozen survived the war.
  7. 173 November 1943EventKey moment11 minOperation Harvest FestivalThe German response to a year of resistance, linked to the Sobibór revolt: in two days about 42,000 of the last Jewish forced labourers of the Lublin region were shot.On 3–4 November 1943 the SS and police shot about 42,000 Jews at Majdanek, Trawniki and Poniatowa – the last forced labourers of the Lublin region.

1944

  1. 187 October 1944EventKey moment9 minThe Sonderkommando revolt at AuschwitzAn armed revolt inside Birkenau itself, the largest prisoner uprising in Auschwitz’s history, aimed at destroying the tools of the crime and leaving testimony.On 7 October 1944 Sonderkommando prisoners at Birkenau rose against the SS and set Crematorium IV on fire. About 450 prisoners and three SS men died.

1945

  1. 1927 January 1945EventKey moment10 minThe liberation of AuschwitzThe finale: the Red Army found about 7,000 prisoners in Auschwitz, and the name of the camp became the symbol of the Holocaust.On 27 January 1945 soldiers of the Soviet 60th Army entered Auschwitz. They found some 7,000 prisoners, hundreds of bodies and stores of victims’ belongings.